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Help Task Killers! Must read for new Android Users

Force close apps/services?

  • Yes, I force close apps/services with ____

    Votes: 101 44.9%

  • No.

    Votes: 69 30.7%

  • Sometimes...

    Votes: 55 24.4%
  • Total voters
    225
kencrudup said:
No, it isn't.

The reason some of y'all are panicing about "Apps I don't run" loading is most likely because these apps are getting notifications (Android Intents) from the system as the system boots, and are necessary for the proper functioning of that particular app- just because you might not use it, doesn't mean no-one does anywhere (and those who do probably want them to run properly :))

But in the end, it has negligible impact on these handsets; it's just not worth worrying about.
Click to expand...

I've always used task killers for myself because in my experience, they help with responsiveness. I've never said people should use task killers just to free up memory for memory's sake. People should always know what they're killing. If people are using certain apps, then using a task killer to kill those apps is obviously counter intuitive.

If you don't know what tasks you should kill, then you shouldn't use a task killer. Anyway, this argument has been beaten to death by both sides. You have valid reasons for not using one as do I for using one.
 
nahpungnome said:
unused RAM is RAM that can be accessed quicker than deciding what to kill in order to free up memory. Free memory space has its uses.
Click to expand...
People have been working on Unix' memory-allocation schemes for decades.

You should be aware that trying to find free pages for new stuff is nearly the same operation as "deleting" old pages; if the LRU (least-recently used) counter indicates the page is free to use, and "stale", it gets reused.

You're gaining very little by "freeing up RAM".
 
kencrudup said:
People have been working on Unix' memory-allocation schemes for decades.

You should be aware that trying to find free pages for new stuff is nearly the same operation as "deleting" old pages; if the LRU (least-recently used) counter indicates the page is free to use, and "stale", it gets reused.

You're gaining very little by "freeing up RAM".
Click to expand...

As I mentioned previously, the user shouldn't see much of a difference if at all, for memory operations such as the ones you and I mentioned. I was merely responding to a post giving a black and white answer memory management.
 
I've had an Evo since it was released and after a few days I started using Advanced Task Killer.

It has never caused an issue for me (aside from me not realizing at first that the clock would be automatically killed, thus preventing me from using it as an alarm - but that's what ignore lists are for). It's improved my battery life significantly since I started using it.

I think that task killers wouldn't be necessary if Android had a Palm / WebOS style way of viewing the apps that are running any closing out what you don't want. I have to say, as someone who works in IT, it seems pretty stupid that they didn't put in a way to actually CLOSE applications...

I think, perhaps, the reason for the "task killers break your phone!" claims are that people use crappy software that's poorly written instead of taking the time to find the right software - we see this on Windows all the time.
 
Umm....I have to say...none of these articles are convincing. TK have built in safety features that make sure you don't turn off anything important that will mess your phone off. At least with Advanced Task Killer.

So if you're only pretty much killing Apps and not processes then go wild.

There are apps that do just randomly start up in 2.2, but they usually aren't taking up any resources. Just preloaded I guess But there are some you may open and not close so using a task killer is great imo. So if you're going to kill that one you might as well kill up the other ones too.

+1 for Task Killer.
 
LOL, run a base station, and sniff the packets going into and out of the htc evo. A lot of the apps that are "just cached" actually use the radio and power to update themselves. Even when you never used them. The really funny thing is that the apps hide behind android processes to hide the fact they are using cpu, radio, and power. So please just run a base station and do a packet sniff.
 
admitedlly a lot of this stuff is over my head, but i have a few pretty simple questions. I too have all the preloaded apps that i don't us being listed as running, but i just occasionally go through and clear the memory for them (i never use them). My battery life is pretty bad, not gonna lie. I did most of the things in the battery thread. My question is: does downloading and installing apps hurt your battery even if they aren't running? I have tons of games i would love to have on my phone, but i'm obviously not going to be playing them all the time. Will just "having" these apps affect my battery life? performance?

also, i don't want to take the time to read those articles, but what are the risks of using a tka. (just list the problems) Thanks!
 
RiverOfIce said:
LOL, run a base station, and sniff the packets going into and out of the htc evo. A lot of the apps that are "just cached" actually use the radio and power to update themselves. Even when you never used them. The really funny thing is that the apps hide behind android processes to hide the fact they are using cpu, radio, and power. So please just run a base station and do a packet sniff.
Click to expand...

"base station" can you elaborate?
 
New to android, but have a question. I understand pre-caching. But doesn't it take up cpu cycles to find the programs that android wants to cache and load them into memory? I would think so. And cpu cycles take up battery, period!! So, if the phone is using cpu cycles to pre-cache programs that people don't use, then I think that is not good. Even if it's only .01% of the battery, thats battery power I want for something I choose to use on the phone. Even minute, every bit of battery counts.

I don't think its about just "having lots of free memory". I thinks its more about a phone and OS doing something useless that the operator doesn't want it to do.
 
I wanted to see a poll:

Who here actually force closes apps that they are not using in foreground or background?

If you do, what do you use? why?

I personally do not, otherwise i find myself checking periodically for apps that autostart, and since i rarely feel lag I dont feel a need to force close services/apps.
 
When I got my phone from the sprint store, they made me install ATK right then and there. I regularly checked the task list and killed stuff because the store claimed it would help with battery life.

Then I applied the "20 tips to save battery life" tips and did see decent battery life.

Then I stopped task killing and noticed my battery life didn't get worse. So I stopped using ATK.

Then I rooted. And got a kernel that could throttle CPU. I installed setCPU and saw amazing battery life savings when my phone was idle.

Battery life is no longer an issue to me. I also have settled down on a usage pattern for my phone and checking what apps are in memory is simply not something I bother with. Even if every single app is open, I won't care because it doesn't adversely affect my usage.
 
I didn't have much battery problems before the update. After the update I didn't play with my phone much and didn't open a lot of apps, my battery wasn't that bad still. But yesterday, I played with my phone for a while, then I recharge it, but the battery still died quickly. I am guessing it's because there is no Advance Task Killer for the update, at least there isn't one that works as far as I know. So I am just wondering is it possible to have something like a task killer for this phone after the update eventually? Advance Task Killer is very efficient to have for this device.


Lol, I don't see where's the harm, or where it's been well documented. They told me when I uninstall the Task Killer my phone will be a lot faster, but I didn't notice anything, as a matter of fact it's still the same speed. If you don't want it, that's fine. But I think it will be very useful to me.
 
Really? Do we need another thread about task killers?

Bottom line is that you do not need any task killer for Android. It's been well documented that "task killers" do more harm than good. There are many ways to improve battery life on Evo - most have to do with using less widgets, disabling background updates, etc. Using task killer isn't one of them.
 
My Evo has been acting up since I upgraded to the Andriod 2.2. My task killer stopped working so I just now uninstalled it I'm going to see if my battery life last longer.

also has anybody been getting a "Sorry" message saying that the process com.htc.bg has stopped unexpectedly. Please Try again?
 
LOL, if people knew what they were doing they could just force stop an app opposed to using a task killer. This tells me a vast majority of people using a task killer do not understand Android and people do not know what they are doing.
 
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